Your Dog Is Missing! The Counterintuitive Approach To Finding Your Lost Dog

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The heart-stopping moment when you realise your dog has vanished is something no pet owner wants to experience. Yet when Linda's tiny toy poodle Bobble disappeared during what should have been a routine walk, it led to valuable lessons that challenge everything we think we know about finding missing dogs.

This compelling episode takes you through the entire emotional journey – from the split-second accident that led to Bobble's disappearance to the counterintuitive strategies that eventually brought him home. Most dog owners believe calling loudly and searching is the right approach, but Lauren discovered that silence and patience proved far more effective when Bobble entered "flight mode."

The expertise shared from legitimate lost dog organisations reveals why scared dogs physically cannot respond to calls and how our natural reactions may actually drive them deeper into hiding. You'll learn practical, immediately useful strategies, including leaving scent items, keeping vehicles open, and recognising the early warning signs that might prevent a disappearance in the first place.

Included is a cautionary tale about scammers who prey on desperate pet owners, having lost £575 to a fake drone search company in their moments of panic. This transparent account provides crucial information about legitimate resources like Drone to Home and Search and Rescue Drone charities that can help in these situations.

Whether you have a tiny escape artist or a confident explorer, this episode delivers potentially life-saving knowledge every dog owner should have before they need it. Because, as Henry Ford said, "Fail to prepare, prepare to fail." Share this episode with fellow dog lovers – the strategies within could make all the difference between heartbreak and a happy reunion.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
Welcome to the Absolute Dog Sex in a Squirrel
podcast.
I'm Lauren Langman.
I'm one of the world's leadingdog trainers and it's my mission
to help owners become theirdog's top priority.
In each episode, you'lldiscover how to gain trust and
communicate with your dog likenever before, creating
unbreakable bonds that make youthe most exciting part of their
world.
Okay, so the adventures ofbobble what to do with a missing

(00:33):
dog and I'm actually going togive you an example of me losing
a dog who actually we workedout wasn't actually even lost.
I just lost her.
And here is a big place so theycan find little places to hide
in a in a scenario.
However, we're going to talkthrough all of that this week's
Sexing the Squirrel what to dowith a missing dog.
Now let's talk into how themissing dog scenario even
started.
Bobble is a toy poodle.

(00:53):
He's tiny, he's cute, he wouldbe very, very likable and he's
very, very much wanted.
So people would love to find adog like Bobble, I'm sure.
Also, he's easily scaredbecause he's he's fairly small,
like he's easily the type thatcould, could, could go, he's a
baby and he's only young.
Uh, what happened, linda?

Speaker 2 (01:11):
so what happened was I had was out on a walk with my
naughty but nice dog, with mywhole pack, and because I have
to manage my naughty but nicedog by moving away from other
dogs, my procedure with Bobbleat that point was I would move
away, scatter feed but holdBobble in my arms because he was

(01:34):
still like six months old, sosix months old.
I'd pick him up and then I'dscatter feed for the other dogs
and as the strange dog came downthe footpath, my phone rang and
I'd been talking to.
I had taken some serious callson my phone so I was distracted
momentarily and in that momentmy naughty but nice dog chose to

(01:56):
launch himself at the passingdog and I have my dogs on a
waist belt and as I, as hepulled, he twisted me around and
I realised I was going to fallover.
So I've got Bobble in my armsand I'm on the way down doing
those split-second decisions.
What do I do in this moment?
Do I crush the dog onto thefloor?

(02:17):
Do I throw it onto the floor?
Will I break its legs?
Do I throw him in the air?
What?

Speaker 1 (02:20):
do, I do Parachute movement.
We need to make light-heartedof it because if not, these
things haunt us it is.
You know, it's like everythingslows, oh yes isn't it same as
when you come off a horse and Iremember making that decision
when a horse was rearing on meand I just thought I'm gonna
jump and I did.
I jumped and lisa said no, youwere so brave and I just jumped.

(02:40):
But you do, you have thatmoment.
You make a decision.
Everything slows right down.

Speaker 2 (02:45):
So I made the decision that I was going to
fall onto my arms and bracemyself so that he hit the floor
on his side.
But he didn't get crushedAnyway, he didn't squeal or
anything.
But the people by this timewere shouting get your dog off
of my dog.
There was a kerfuffle going onso I jumped to my feet to sort

(03:08):
out my naughty but nice dog andmy other one that had followed
him, and I was talking quiteloud as well.
So, bob, I presume at thatpoint he's shouting a very
unsafe person, ping, get here,lie down there.
I'm really sorry to thesepeople and they just linked it.
They just wanted to part thescene very, very quickly.

(03:30):
I turned around no bubble,bubble vanished, bubble had
evaporated.

Speaker 1 (03:36):
So I'm going Tiny poodle, scared, worried about
voices, doesn't understand afuffle needs to go into flight
mode.
He's gone, flight mode.

Speaker 2 (03:46):
He's just gone.
He's gone, he's hiddensomewhere or he's run away.
I had no idea which directionhe'd gone in.
On one side was a wheat crop,there was a footpath that the
people went down.
I was pretty sure he wouldn'thave followed them because their
dog would have told them themthat he was following them, if
you see what I mean, that hewould have.
Their dog would have picked up.
They'd been followed by anotherdog.

(04:07):
I didn't think he'd gone thatway.
But then there was thiswoodland area with lots of
brambles and hawthorn andcleavers and I don't know what
else.
So I'm calling, I'm calling, I'mcalling, I'm calling nothing,
absolutely nothing.
So I took the rest, my otherpack, back to the van, which was

(04:27):
about about three-quarters of amile away.
So I walked them back and Icame back with one dog.
My dogs do tracking andsearching, so I prompted the dog
to search and they went intothis woodland, but they didn't
direct me.
Well, I couldn't see Bobble.
So that was sort of right.
So I got one of Bobble'sblankets and put it right at the

(04:49):
point where he had gone.
So I put something that's notfamiliar on the footpath, went
back to the van, phoned myhusband I've lost the puppy and
he came down and he was callingand nothing.
So I con I put on a localfacebook group that this puppy

(05:12):
had gone missing.
My concern was that if I, if hewas out overnight, I don't
think he would survive.
I mean, I have a feeling a foxwould have got him or something,
because he's like little oneone and a half kilos, two kilos.
So I phoned the drone to homepeople.
The charity and the advice theygave me was A to leave

(05:33):
something that was my smell nearwhere he went missing and, b to
leave the vehicle where it was,but with the doors open.
Now I wouldn't have thought toleave the doors open, but anyway
, leave the vehicle where it iswith the doors open.
Now I wouldn't have thought toleave the doors open, but anyway
, leave the vehicle where it iswith the doors open and stop
calling, and I think we shouldhave stopped calling much

(05:55):
earlier, but anyway we didn't.
So it was about half past threein the afternoon.
We did a lot of searching,tracking, walking about, walking
through the crop, walkingthrough this room no sign of him
.
I took the other dogs home in myhusband's car, left the van
where it was my husband wasthere and a couple of friends
were there who know aboutpoodles, and it was just about

(06:18):
nine o'clock, so he'd beenmissing about five hours and the
one of the friends walked pastmy van and they saw a little
face, look out and there wasBobble and he'd made his three
quarters of a mile back up thetrack covered in cleavers.
So he'd obviously been in thiswoodland covered in cleavers and
he'd got on the van and the vanwas his safe space.

(06:39):
Bless him.
So a tiny little poof.

Speaker 1 (06:44):
Huge, huge learning there, I think the stopping
calling, the, not having so manypeople out, like not turning it
into a big, which I think a lotof people do, and you do yell
for them and you yell yeah, buthe couldn't have been more than
a few meters away from.

Speaker 2 (06:58):
Yeah, I've gone into flight, so he'd gone in.
He'd gone into feral mode.
He was just into surviving.
Yeah, flight mode.
He just in.
He covered himself up somewhereyou know.

Speaker 1 (07:08):
I've had a couple of scenarios and I think it's worth
us talking through these andwith you to know what to do in a
situation like this.
Of course, communicate witheveryone, but also make very
clear that you don't wantsomeone calling them and trying
to grab them.
It's more that you want to knowif there's a sighting so that
you can actually start to movethings in that direction.
The other thing that was reallybig for me is that when we lost
our dog our dog actually she'dheard, I think, some sort of

(07:28):
plane or red arrow or somethinggo over and she'd bolted and
she'd gone and hidden in behinda water pump at the site where
we live.
And yet we were calling, wewere yelling like we were in
desperation of where she'd, likeno one had seen her, like we
couldn't understand it, howshe'd gone from the garden.
It was almost like she'd beenpinched, but she hadn't.
We knew no one's been on site.
We looked at the cctv as well.
The thing was until everythingwent quiet and the only reason

(07:53):
we saw her is because we put aflashlight, and we put
flashlights around and we sawlittle eyes and she was hidden
and she was right underneathrubble and everything she was in
behind a water pump.
But when they go into that mode, the verbal cue or the calling
cue is actually not at allrelevant and it's not helpful at
all.
It's actually almost theopposite, isn't it?
It's unhelpful.
And the other thing I thoughtwas really worth telling people

(08:13):
I, I looked at a drone sitestraight away as well, and I I
contacted the drone company andI paid them and I was actually
paying scammers and I paid ascamming company and in that
moment of desperation I think wepaid 575 pound.
In that moment of desperationyou do stupid things.
And it wasn't that I hadanything like.

(08:34):
I literally was just desperate.
I didn't have anything on thecompany or anything.
I just looked up UK drone,jumped onto UK drone and they
actually had scammed me, whichwas a shock, and I didn't
realize that until they didn'tcome out and we were still
looking, and then I rang to saywe'd found her and I actually
was going to say I'm reallyappreciative that you were going
to come out.
There was no one to phone me.
They'd gone, and so I thinkthere are a lot of things we

(08:57):
might do in an incident of a dog.

Speaker 2 (09:01):
It may never have to use it, but check out bona fide
search sites.
Dog loss sites.
Yeah, and there are some greatones and they're actually a
charity.
Yeah, so Drone to Home is acharity.

Speaker 1 (09:14):
Yeah, SAR Search and Rescue Drone is a charity, and
these had cloned a page and wereacting like another page and
the other page couldn't shutthem down.
But actually all of thecommunications were odd and if
you'd seen it in a logical way,you'd have reasoned with it and
gone.
No, no, no, that's not okay,whereas actually when you're in
panic you often don't.
So I think there are somethings to learn here from a lost

(09:36):
dog, and you've run through afew tips.
One was leave a blanket that'snot familiar to him and of you.
Two was leave the vehicle openand in the place that it was.
So you could track it back.
Three was actually be quiet,Stop calling, Stop calling.
Four and I think this is justone for everybody to know,
because I think this is aninteresting one You've got all

(09:57):
your dogs there.
It was useful to take them homein that scenario, and actually
they went out of the equation.
Yeah, so they were gone and ittook away some complexity from
the situation.
Yes, them out of the equation.
Yeah, so they were going and ittook away some complexity.
Yes, from the situation.
Yes, and five for me if you douse a drone company and I think
the drone company is fantasticcheck them out to just make sure
that they are directly thecompany they say they are.
There are people that scam insituations where people are
vulnerable.
I was very vulnerable.

(10:18):
I was pushing matt.
I was like matt, you need topay this company 575 pound,
whatever.
It was bang gone.
There was no comeback on that.
There was none.
And if we paid with, like acredit card or PayPal, we would
have had some level of but thesecharities don't charge Drone to
Home.

Speaker 2 (10:31):
didn't ask me for any money.
Yeah, they sent me a whole loadof YouTube videos on what I
should be doing.
They straight away set up a dogloss poster and had that on
their site, on their Facebookpage.
So they did all of that.

Speaker 1 (10:44):
it's a charity without ever asking yeah, it's a
charity and then you can donateto them if you feel appropriate
at some point.
I think the other one I wouldsay with with dogs lost is, for
those moments, just nopotentials for them.
And and I've seen a couplelately with one of our dogs
where something spooked her andactually I'll just put her
straight back on a lead.
Yeah, so she can just go on along line or a flexi or a normal

(11:04):
lead.
I actually don't give her asecond choice or a second chance
.
Actually, we're putting her onlead and we're not because I can
see it coming and I can seehers is noise triggered and at
the same time let's not leave itto chance and also let's not
then put her in situations thatI know are going to be a
struggle for her.

Speaker 2 (11:18):
So if Linda's going to be a situation maybe isn't in
the equation or it's different,like you said, you've managed
now observing Bobble andcertainly there's been times
when I see his ears go back, hisnose goes up and his tail goes
down and that's back on leadtime something it's in the
environment.
That's probably part of thisepisode.

(11:41):
Yeah, he goes straight back onthe lead.

Speaker 1 (11:43):
yeah, and you said the same with Ulla Yesterday.
You walked her rather than herbeing up in front and
adventuring for whatever reason,something had spooked her and
she was behind you.
These are things you notice andyou notice them.
And you notice them and you wantto put them on the lead or be a
little bit aware of whatthey're doing, or even align or
just become a little bit moreaware to them.
One of my dogs only recentlywent and hid in a bush on a walk
and something annoyed or upsether.

(12:04):
I think it was a bailingmachine, a hay baler, and I
think it clunked a few too manytimes for her and for whatever
reason, she hid in a bush.
The thing is, if you hadn'tseen her go and hide in that
bush, you'd never have known.
It was like needle in ahaystack, because she could have
hidden in.
It's a bridal path like therewas no sign of her, just blows
you away.
Blows you away how, how, andyou could call her until you're

(12:25):
blue in the face.
If they can't, they go intospace.
They just can't respond.

Speaker 2 (12:30):
Well, if their instinct has told them they're
in survival mode, then theycan't respond to recalls, it's
literally.
It's like you might be calling,but you can be calling until
you're blue in the face andyou're just going to make it
worse because it's puttingpressure on them when they can't
respond.
Yeah they're not able to.
No, they need quiet, alwaysneed quiet.

Speaker 1 (12:50):
So I hope that Bobble's adventures have enabled
you to think about whether yourdog hopefully never goes on an
adventure.
But if they do go on anadventure like Bobble, then you
actually have a bit of a backupplan.
For me with Easy when shescooted on a noise, I think the
panic that hits you as an owneris is huge, and you know what
henry ford said.

(13:11):
He said fail to prepare.
Yes, prepare to fail, and Ifeel like the preparedness of
talking through things like this.
It also stops you panickingbecause you have a plan and of
course, you're in panic, butthere's slightly more strategic
plan as to what you're doing,because at least when you know
what you're doing, there's achance that you can make logical
decisions, where actually itprobably did allow you to make

(13:31):
more logical decisions as soonas you've spoken to them and now
, knowing that, it calmed medown.

Speaker 2 (13:36):
Yeah, the other thing that I'm very particular about
and he had on him, he waswearing an identity tag.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, he's so tinyhe doesn't have a collar on, but
he has an identity tag on.
Yeah, yeah, and that he's sotiny he doesn't have a collar on
, but he has an identity tag onhis harness.
Yeah, and I'm very particularabout I mean, he doesn't wear
anything in the house.
Yeah, when he's out and about,he must always have an identity
tag on, um, although he'schipped as well, but yeah, just

(13:58):
that easy.

Speaker 1 (13:59):
And with your chicks, have your information up to
date, so I think that's alsoreally important.
So, dog loss no dog found.
You guys are going to get thisand sort this and have this and
the preparing is reallyimportant and ultimately we hope
it never happens to you.
But maybe share this podcastbecause it's worth sharing,
isn't it?
It's worth your obediencestudents knowing, it's worth my
agility students knowing, it'sworth life knowing and, most of

(14:22):
all, make it a great day withyour dog.
Hopefully this never happensand, most of all, make it a
great day with your dog.
Hopefully this never happensand if it does, you know what to
do.